A Still Subtler Spirit by Monroe Golden

Loci: Recorded by Daniel Farris at Denial Labs Studio, Birmingham, AL Drift: Recorded by Daniel Farris at Birmingham-Southern College. Mixed at Denial Labs Studio, Birmingham, AL. Mastered by Tucker Robison at Robison Productions Studio, 1038 Bullrush Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70810.

LINER NOTES

Vegan Permaculture (1995) was so named because notions of sustainable agriculture/forest gardening were a twin obsession while writing the work, in particular the research done by Ken Fern in Cornwall. Only after initial rehearsals did I realize that that view of nature, cooperative rather than competitive, is reflected in the non-hierarchical interactions of the four instruments. It is fitting that Rusty Banks performs the work, since I wrote it at his prodding, and with four drumming guitarists like him in mind. The four instruments are restrung and retuned, with twelve high E strings (each tuned to a slightly different "E") in alternating positions - this in order to facilitate a hybrid tuning system relating overtones to fundamentals from a Pythagorean system.

By Nary was composed and premiered in Urbana, Illinois in 1987. Written for alto flute, trombone, custom-built chimes and piano, each octave of the piano is tuned to the first twelve prime-numbered partials {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37} in relation to a fundamental of "A". The chimes are tuned to the next six prime-numbered partials {41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61}. One aspect of this tuning system is audible difference tones, or lower pitches produced by two or more higher pitches. Another attribute is that, excepting octave transposition, no distances between any two notes are exactly the same. Meant to resist, and at the same time acknowledge, tendencies to dichotomy and traveling in pairs, the work is organized as duets, occurring both in series and parallel, that self-destruct, atrophy, or transform. These smaller formal components constitute two macrocosmic sections that divide the whole composition. The first is based on gradually expanding and contracting intervals. The second presents overtone relationships relative to fundamentals (always "A") that change by octave displacement.

Walden Songs, completed in 1999, were written for and dedicated to mezzo-soprano Kathryn Venable. After spending some time in search of prose about the relationship of people to the natural world, a conversation with Thoreau scholar Theodore Haddin led me back to Walden. In short order, I found three excerpts that were not only amenable to setting, but also suggested musical treatment because of the nature of the text. For instance, in setting the excerpt from "The Ponds," I alternated two different musical textures and changed their relationship to each other over time, just as Thoreau compares the surface of water reflecting air to the surface of air and a higher plane, perhaps spiritual, but certainly beyond present human perception. Thoreau's acknowledgement of our limited awareness of natural laws in "The Pond in Winter" suggested a piano part that is itself a complete process, apart from the vocal line. In "Spring," the breaking down of words to their component parts and Greek origins, and the analogies of the macrocosmic awakening of the earth to the microcosmic budding of leaves, suggested gradually expanding musical structures. In all three songs, the vocal part is written in a harmonic tuning system, with certain pitches inflected 1/10 tone flat, 1/6 tone flat, 1/5 tone sharp, and ¼ tone sharp. The piano notes are treated as relationships between the 3rd, 9th, 17th, 19th, and 27th partials, those being harmonics proximate to equal tempered pitches. An overtone-based tuning system seems especially appropriate for setting Thoreau, since it is based on natural laws of musical acoustics, and is itself a subversive movement, challenging the status quo of equal temperament.

I. From "The Ponds:" A field of water betrays the spirit that is in the air. It is continually receiving new life and motion from above. It is intermediate in its nature between land and sky. On land only the grass and trees wave, but the water itself is rippled by the wind. I see where the breeze dashes across it by the streaks or flakes of light. It is remarkable that we can look down on its surface. We shall, perhaps, look down thus on the surface of air at length, and mark where a still subtler spirit sweeps over it.

II. From "The Pond in Winter:" If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notions of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect; but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but really concurring, laws, which we have not detected, is still more wonderful. The particular laws are as our points of view, as, to the traveler, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form. Even when cleft or bored through it is not comprehended in its entireness.

III. From "Spring:" No wonder that the earth expresses itself outwardly in leaves, it so labors with the idea inwardly. The atoms have already learned this law, and are pregnant with it. The overhanging leaf sees here its prototype. Internally, whether in the globe or animal body, it is a moist thick lobe, a word especially applicable to the liver and lungs and the leaves of fat (*, labor, lapsus, to flow or slip downward, a lapsing; **, globus, lobe, globe; also lap, flap, and many other words); externally, a dry thin leaf, even as the f and v are a pressed and dried b. The radicals, of lobe are lb, the soft mass of the b (single-lobed, or B, double-lobed), with the liquid l behind it pressing it forward. In globe, glb, the guttural g adds to the meaning the capacity of the throat. The feathers and wings of birds are still drier and thinner leaves. Thus, also, you pass from the lumpish grub in the earth to the airy and fluttering butterfly. The very globe continually transcends and translates itself, and becomes winged in its orbit. Even ice begins with delicate crystal leaves, as if it had flowed into moulds which the fronds of water-plants have impressed on the watery mirror. The whole tree itself is but one leaf, and rivers are still vaster leaves whose pulp is intervening earth, and towns and cities are the ova of insects in their axils.

* the Greek letters lambda, epsilon, iota, beta, omega

** the Greek letters lambda, omega, beta, omega, sigma

Loci was written in 1986, following a collaborative project with Romanian composer Aurel Stroé that introduced me to catastrophism, and the implications therein for nonlinear musical form. My intent was to juxtapose and collide several incommensurate systems that encompass tuning, timbre, and performance practice; for example, harmonics, quarter-tone tetrachords, and noise. Only one system, represented by soft multiphonics with long echoes and no direct amplification, remains immutable, as a magnum mysterium.

Drift (1996) for piano, two pianos, or player piano is microtonally-conceived music for a fixed-pitch equal-tempered instrument, accomplished by extracting equal-tempered pitches corresponding to overtones relative to a conceptual fundamental that very gradually drifts lower in pitch. This process creates a dynamic series that eventually includes every note on the piano and, depending upon the register of the fundamental, increases or diminishes like a living organism. The nature of the row suggested its presentation as a long melody with constantly changing register and octave doublings. The definite tendency toward the piano's short small strings facilitated an almost total avoidance of damping, thereby treating the piano like a giant hammer dulcimer. Although the work may be heard as a rondo, I conceived it rather as a narrative interrupted by episodes.

BIOGRAPHIES

Monroe Golden is a freelance composer from rural Alabama whose works explore alternate tuning systems and the implications of those systems for other musical structures. His compositions, consisting of solo, ensemble, and electronic works, have been performed throughout the United States and Canada. He is the recipient of a 2002 Artist Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Currently serving as president of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance, of which he is also a founding member, he has also headed the Birmingham Art Association and the ARTBURST performance series at the Unitarian Church of Birmingham. He produced the 1998 Birmingham Improvisation Festival, and founded the New Arts Stage at Birmingham's annual downtown City Stages music festival. Golden graduated cum laude from the University of Montevallo in 1983 and earned a doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1989; composition teachers include James Jensen, Ed Robertson, Ben Johnston, Aurel Stroé, and Herbert Brün.

Flutist, composer, clarinetist, and performance artist Donnie Ashworth is a strong advocate of new music and other innovative contemporary artforms. Mr. Ashworth's compositions have been performed throughout the United States. He has commissioned and premiered new works for flute by Dorothy Hindman and Charles Norman Mason, and has introduced works by many other composers to the Birmingham community. Ashworth has performed at nationally recognized music conventions and festivals such as SEAMUS, CMENC, Birmingham Improv, and City Stages. His performances have been recorded on the Living Artists CD series.

Rusty Banks (b. 1974) is a native of Alabama, now living and working in Nebraska. As a guitarist, Rusty has studied and performed a bewildering array of styles, including Rock (rockabilly, punk, metal, pop, funk, blues-rock), Jazz (swing, bop, fusion, free jazz), Indigenous (bluegrass, Celtic, gospel) and Classical (all periods). As a classical guitarist Rusty has studied with, among others, Bruce Holzman at the Florida State University. He has performed throughout the country, primarily as an interpreter of new music. Currently he teaches privately, as well as for Doane College and performs solo, and with flutist Betsy Bobenhouse. As a composer, Rusty has studied with Ladislav Kubik at Florida State University and Ed Robertson at the University of Montevallo. His work draws from the vast styles of music he has studied, while always remaining in the modern art music vein. His works have been performed across the country, and have received airplay in the United States and Europe. His music can be heard on LIVING ARTISTS recordings as well as innova Records. He has been commissioned by Michael Patilla, Craig Hultgren, the Birmingham Guitar Quartet, Trio Bolero, the Third Chair Chamber Players, and the Nebraska Wesleyan Wind Ensemble. He currently serves as the conductor/composer in residence of the Third Chair Chamber Players.

Adam Bowles is a native of Los Angeles who is nearing completion of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He obtained his Bachelor of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music, and then received his Master of Music at the New England Conservatory of Music. His main teachers have been Milton Stern, Barry Snyder, Jacob Maxin, and currently Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff. He has also received periodic coaching with Richard Goode, Malcolm Bilson, and Seymour Lipkin. During graduate studies Mr. Bowles has held assistantships in vocal and instrumental accompanying for three years and has performed numerous chamber music recitals around the Cincinnati area. Mr. Bowles was also on the faculty of the Preparatory Department of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he has served as coordinator of its Chamber Music Program. He is now an instructor on the Birmingham-Southern College Conservatory faculty and teaches a few college music classes for majors. Mr. Bowles frequently collaborates with vocal students and faculty at the college and has been a featured performer at the 2002 and 2003 Music Technology Conferences sponsored by the ACS Orpheus Alliance in Georgetown, TX.

Trombonist and composer Doug Bristol is Associate Professor of Theory and Technology at Alabama State University. In addition to teaching theory, ear training, and technology courses, Doug is Director of Jazz Studies and supervisor of the computer music lab. His educational background includes degrees from the University of Tennessee, Georgia State University, and the Doctor of Arts degree in Theory and Composition from the University of Northern Colorado with a secondary emphasis in Jazz Pedagogy. He performed for several years on euphonium as a founding member of the Alabama Tuba Quartet, and has performed with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and musicals at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. He has played with commercial recording artists The O'Jays and Ray Charles, and with many jazz artists including Cecil McBee, Conrad Herwig, Steve Ellington, Cleavon Eaton, Arturo Sandoval, and Willie Thomas. The University of North Texas One O'clock Lab Band, University of Northern Colorado Lab Band One, and the League of Decency have recorded his music. UNC Jazz Press, TAP Music, International Trombone Association Manuscript Press, and Tuba-Euphonium Press publish his works.

Renaissance man Kurt Carpenter is a composer, conductor, painter, pianist, and writer. He has received orchestral commissions from the symphonies of Indianapolis, New Orleans, Fort Worth, Omaha, and Sacramento. He has appeared both as guest composer and soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Cincinnati Symphony, as well as many others. Carpenter is director of the 2002 Birmingham Improvisation Festival, and founder and director of STRICTLY AVANT-GARDE, a concert series of music, theater, dance, performance, and visual art at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Gene Fambrough, DMA, is Assistant Director of Bands and Percussion Instructor at UAB. He holds degrees from The University of Georgia and East Carolina University, as well as the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance from The University of Alabama. He directs the UAB Percussion Ensemble and Steel Band, and serves as percussion arranger and instructor for the Marching Blazers. A published composer, he has written works for solo marimba, multiple percussion with tape, marimba quartet, percussion ensemble, and various forms of rudimental percussion. As a performer, he has appeared with The North Carolina Symphony, Panama Steel, The Bizzare Arte Ensemble, the Spirit of Atlanta drum and bugle corps, and the ECU Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Fambrough has played drum set in numerous settings, from musicals and big band jazz to studio time with a rock band. He has also presented lectures on the use of nontraditional notation for multiple percussion solos, including techniques utilized by Stockhausen, Feldman, and Xenakis. Dr. Fambrough's teachers include Dr. Thomas McCutchen, Dr. Arvin Scott, Dr. Allen Teel, Dr. Ken Broadway, Mike Back, Mark Ford, and Larry Mathis.

Kevin Grigsby has studied with William DeVan, Jane Magrath, Andrew Cooperstock and E.L. Lancaster. He has won numerous piano competitions including the Alys Robinson Stephens piano competition. Other honors include playing at the College Music Society National Convention and the SEAMUS National Convention. He also was featured guest performer at the Seaside Institute in Seaside, Florida. He was the pianist and vocal coach for a production of Charles Norman Mason's Daphne at Sea. Recently Grigsby created a conservatory program at the First Baptist Church of Trussville where he currently serves as music associate.

Mezzo-soprano Kathryn Venable sings "beautifully" and "heartfully" in a "remarkable" voice (The Birmingham News). Her performance at the International Computer Music Conference (Havana, Cuba) won praise for its "measured restraint" and "beautiful delivery." She performs with Birmingham Art Music Alliance, and sings Monroe Golden's Walden Songs on his CD A Still Subtler Spirit (Living Artists Label). Her song cycle for voice and playback, Lectio Divina, premiered at Birmingham's City Stages Festival. She has provided voiceover and video for the official University of Alabama at Birmingham website (www.uab.edu). Venable has an MA from the University of Alabama; her teachers include H. Wesley Balk and Barbara Kierig of the University of Minnesota.

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